Today, Governor Rick Scott issued a statement on President Obama’s visit to PortMiami:

“We’re glad Florida provided the President with a tremendous backdrop to highlight our state’s continued job growth – especially with today’s news that we dropped to 7.7 percent unemployment and have created more than 290,000 private-sector jobs in the past two years. In Florida, we’ve managed to grow jobs by cutting taxes, paying down debt and balancing the budget – a stark contrast to the ways of Washington.

“While we’re happy to host the President, we hoped to hear a commitment to reimburse Florida taxpayers the millions of dollars the state invested for the federal portion of port projects in Miami and Jacksonville. We hope this reimbursement will be included in the President’s budget proposal next week.

“In the meantime we will not wait on Washington. We will continue to invest in Florida ports so we make Florida a top hub for international commerce. Florida taxpayers have already invested $425 million in our ports to take advantage of the benefits of growing international trade, and we’ll continue making targeted port investments to grow jobs and opportunities for Florida families.”